Summary

The Good

A fashion game is a good use of the Barbie license. While advanced fashion topics wouldn't really work well in a game of this era, a matching game is a decent substitute.

The graphics are fairly decent by Genesis standards, particularly in the close-up matching sessions. The main game is more just okay.

The Bad

I realize this game was aimed at preteen girls, who are not known for being an audience that craves a challenge, but the game is entirely too easy. I played it on the hardest difficulty setting and beat it on my second try. The whole affair took about fifteen minutes.

The only real challenge I found was matching some of the colors. A couple of the darker red fingernail polishes were indistinguishable on my TV. Luckily, this won't keep you from winning, only reduce your score.

When you do win, it's disappointingly unceremonious. There's no cutscene, no credit scroll, just a score and you're dumped back to the Sega logo. This is a huge weakness.

The whole thing suffers from bizarre video game logic as well. In some levels, Barbie is on foot, yet she can't turn around to go get something she missed. I suppose I can understand how being hit with a frisbee could end one's modeling career, but a good model should have pedestrians jumping to get out of her way, not vice-versa.

The Bottom Line

This could be a good game to distract a little girl for a fairly brief period. She might like the free play mode, which amounts to paper dolls, but there still isn't a broad enough selection for this to last even a serious Barbie fan more than a few hours.